* Is Notre Dame the best team of the nation? Well, probably not. On a neutral field, the Irish would be an underdog against more than half of the teams currently in the top 10. But the nature of the polls demand that they're ranked No. 1, so they are.

* ND gets the edge over Ohio State by virtue of its better win over Michigan State. The two lone unbeaten teams actually had three common opponents. Both eked out close wins against Michigan and Purdue, but the Irish blew out the Spartans while the Buckeyes won by just one.

* Michigan is the only four-loss team on the ballot, and it's really a bit of a head-scratcher of a team. The four teams the Wolverines lost to combined to have lost just three games (0 for Nos. 1 and 2 Notre Dame and Ohio State, 1 for No. 6 Alabama and 2 for No. 15 Nebraska). They easily could've been a top 10 team, but they're right about where they are.

* Two WAC teams (Utah State and San Jose State) and two MAC teams (Kent State and Northern Illinois) are on my ballot for the first time ever. The WAC is disbanding as a football conference after this season, but at least it's going out on a high note.

2 comments:

Alex
said...

What is the rationale for Oregon at #3 and Alabama at #6? They have very similar losses (very close games against 2 loss teams at home), and Bama clearly has the more impressive wins (even going by your rankings).

I sure hope you don't keep ranking Oregon over the winner of next weeks SECCG. That would just be too much bias for me to deal with.

@Alex - I think there's still some reshuffling to be done next week. If Georgia loses, Florida will move up. But because UGA beat the Gators head-to-head, there is no way to put Florida ahead when both teams have the same record.

Samuel Chi

The Guru is a journalist who takes time from his busy schedule to provide this important public service. And of course, the Guru is so well-rounded that he has interests beyond the gridiron and crystal ball. Check out his other adventures -- after first buckle your seat belt.